SARA 

James Webb

FIU

Luna and Twinkle

CCD camera

10

0

Other

Blazar microvariability Could not get the telescoep into a decent focus. Tried the automate focus mechanism 4 times, and played with adjustign teh focus all night. NEver acheived a decent focus

Judi Provencal

University of Delaware/MCAO

none

Andor

7

1

Other

Photometry of GD358. There was about 2 hrs as the telescope approached the zenith where about 20% of the images showed tracking issues. Dome stopped tracking at the same point as it did the last two nights.

Judi Provencal

University of Delaware/MCAO

none

Andor

7

1

Software/Control PC Issues

Photometry of GD358. Software required multiple resets (cycling of the control cabinet) at the beginning of the night to get everything up and running. Dome stopped tracking towards the end of the run. This was fixed by turning azimuth recycle on and off.

Judi Provencal

University of Delaware/MCAO

3 cats

Andor

7

0

No problems to report

Photometry of the pulsating white dwarf GD358. I noticed the tracking issues mentioned in the previous night report. The dome stopped tracking near the end of the run, necessitating turning off the azimuth recycle outlet.

Steve Gillam

ERAU

None

Andor CCD

10.5

0

Other

Program: Microvariables The ACE worked well all night. The Weather station GUI stopped updating around midnight La Palma time. I did not attempt to fix it. I looked at HD137909 early in the evening. The pointing was about 3 arc min east of the target coordinates. Around midnight, I moved to KIC 582608. The telescope pointed about 6 arc min south of this target. I started observing this object at the eastern elevation limit (30 deg.) For about an hour the telescope drifted in RA by as much as 4 arc min in about 20 minutes of time. The drift rate reduced considerably over the next hour. Then, the tracking settled down and the target was virtually nailed in place from about 2 hours east of the meridian to 1.5 hours west of the meridian.

Steve Gillam

ERAU

None

Andor CCD

6

5

Software/Control PC Issues

Microvariables. The camera crashed at the start of the night. Several power-cycles of the camera computer were required to get the camera working. The dome GUI reported the dome "ajar" three times. After several opens and closes, it reported the dome closed. The telescope would not slew. This was traced to the Dec and RA reset switches getting set to ON. This occurred sometime after a slew to the zenith. I pointed at two star about three hours apart. The telescope pointed 3-4 arc minutes north of the desired position in both cases.. I followed a single target for about 4 hours. I took a series of ~300 images. One very 70 seconds. The tracking was very good east of the meridian. In the hour or so that I observed the target west of the meridian, the tracking jumped about 20 arc seconds roughly every other image. The telescope pointing appeared to oscillate between two positions about 60 arc sec apart.

Judi

MCAO

none

Andor

5

5

No problems to report

test

Matthew Knote

Florida Institute of Technology

Keefe Kamp

Andor CCD

5

0

No problems to report

I was observing the eclipsing binary KIC 6223646 as part of my dissertation research. I observed using the Johnson-Cousins B, V, R, and I filters. Focus was set to ~110000 when the night began and was adjusted three times, ending at 115000. Stars were triangular in shape, a known issue. Seeing was good throughout the night despite that.

Roi Alonso

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

no

ccd

6

2

Software/Control PC Issues

WD sequences (one target). A few times during the night, the ccd seems to stay reading out forever. Several restarts of the connector client needed to get it back (and with the good radio buttons).

William Keel

University of Alabama

2 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

System checkout, supernovae. Compromise focus 109000, ambient T=6 C. The filter slipped backed into dual-empty on me once. Keep watch. For other observers used to not having them working at our sites, both the JKT weather station and all-sky camera are functional on the OBS computer. (The unmarked round black button at the top right of the EOS 6D panel takes a picture). D:\ALLSKY\2020_05_15, for example, gives a directory that all the night’s images can be retrieved in. (Not the same disk as D: from the CCD computer) The focus for the guide camera is around -725 (with the current aberrations, you can pick your image shape by changing focus). The old restriction on pixel location of the guide star in the CCD field has been fixed. Guiding goes he wrong way on the x-axis (EW), probably from the same cause as the reversal of the RA axis in offsets and the virtual handpaddle. Tracking so poor in both coordinates at 4h W +34 that even 1-minute exposures are not reliable. At 2h W +75 encountered sudden 8” EW jumps twice, saw many more at 1h22W -23. Just west of the meridian at -24, tracking went quickly from “fine for 5 minutes” to “OK for 1 minute”. Started the night moving the telescope far to NSEW, trying to unstick anything that might be stuck among mirror supports. Again, the best stellar PSFs are far to the south, but they depend very strongly on HA even at the same declination (from “sort of OK” to “oncoming fleet of Federation starships”) In the middle of the sky and east, pointing offsets are about 2’ south. To the south and west, there is an additional west offset as large as 2.5 arcminutes. When pointing at a planet using the control system’s options, subsequent offsets cause unexpected telescope behaviors - runaways or return to previous coordinates. Trying it three times to center Saturn, I had to power cycle the ACE cabinet 3 times to restore telescope motion. Then restarted camera PC because connector client came back without camera control. Then it restarted with camera but not telescope. Finally on 4th time, telescope/dome control came back (weirdly, first on telescope computer and only then on camera computer). This has a nasty habit of happening right at the end of the night, too.

William Keel

University of Alabama

3 cats

Andor CCD

9

0

No problems to report

Post-shutdown checkout. The telescope appears out of collimation, or maybe more likely) there is a problem with the mirror supports. At best compromise focus, the PSF changes a lot around the sky. Tadpole, bow and arrow, tiara, stirrup, pick a shape. The best images are seen deep in south, sort of where it was parked (with a very different focus, 106700 instead of 109350) overhead. In fact, even in the south where the image quality is OK, the focus changes by +/-500 units from place to place. Focusing may be slow to complete mirror motion - the first 10s image after a focus move was almost always fuzzy, sharpening up a minute or so later. E-W offsets go in the wrong direction (+ goes west to smaller RA values) Filter wheel stuck once. Cycled ACE cabinet power, restarted software. Guide camera crashed GUI on exposure end, after restarting abort button still crashes ACE GUI and expose button does nothing. Brian did get it to know the right camera, listing the proper pixel format (started off giving 0x0 pixels). Targets appear about 2’ S 2’ W of chip center Tracking was very poor (2” per minute off) at 4h W +72 while testing PSF around the sky. Off by a similar amount in both coordinates around 1hE -19, but then OK at 1h E -13. Dome zoned out twice. REALLY need alerts for dome tracking off. Pointing in the south has large offsets, once as large as 12’ W and 4’ S. (2’ W 2’ S was typical around the sky) At start of morning twilight, dome stopped (how does it know?) Restarting whole system and cycling ACE control cabinet twice restored telescope and dome function, but did not connect to Andor camera either time - so that’s where I left it. Can we get more sky access below elevation 30 degrees? That's half the sky, and the telescope looks as if it can mechanically go lower.